Prince Charles puts heat on ministers over climate change

The Prince of Wales, who has warned about irreversible damage caused by global
warming, holds private meeting with the Energy Secretary and climate change
minister.

Prince Charles

By Richard Eden

7:26AM BST 19 May 2013

The Prince of Wales, who warned 50 months ago that there were fewer than 100 months left to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change, is keen to check on progress.

Mandrake hears that the heir to the throne summoned Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, and Greg Barker, the climate change minister, to a private meeting at his London residence, Clarence House, earlier this month.

There have been suggestions that Prince Charles will tone down his public comments on controversial subjects such as climate change as he takes on more duties from the Queen.

However, a courtier tells me: “His Royal Highness has no intention of keeping quiet when it comes to issues of such imporance.”

The Prince said in 2009 that that a failure to act on climate change would have catastrophic effects for the planet. Even in a global recession, the world must not lose sight of the “bigger picture”.

When it was disclosed in 2003 that Marina Mowatt was living on state benefits, friends said the Queen’s cousin and goddaughter of the Prince of Wales was so short of money that she planned to take her daughter, Zenouska, out of private school and move her to a comprehensive.

Ten years later, Zenouska is taking steps to secure her own income. Mandrake hears that the granddaughter of Princess Alexandra and the late Sir Angus Ogilvy is working for the shoe company French Sole.

The firm is a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge; the late Diana, Princess of Wales also shopped there.

Zenouska, whose father, the photographer Paul Mowatt, divorced Marina in 1997 after the Queen gave her consent, works as a press officer for the Mayfair-based company, which was founded by Jane Winkworth, the shoe designer known as “the Queen of ballet flats”.

One of Zenouska’s friends says: “Her parents are very happy for her.”

Zenouska, who celebrates her 23rd birthday next weekend, grew up in a unprepossessing grace-and-favour cottage on the Crown Estate in Windsor Great Park. She had previously undertaken some work experience in the office of Sarah, Duchess of York.